While large corporations can justify the employment of an in-house Information Technology (IT) support department to provide technical support for computer, network and peripheral systems, small to medium size concerns typically cannot justify the expense of full time, in-house IT support. Accordingly, the IT support operations of such small and medium sized concerns may either be outsourced to a computer support company or consultant that provides technical support as and when needed. However, such support organizations, or consultants, may not be able to respond to an equipment failure in a timely manner and may have difficulty performing an appropriate diagnostic on the failed equipment. As such support companies and consultants typically charge on an hourly basis, the cost of having a technician or consultant perform an on-site visit, perform extensive diagnostics to locate the cause of the failure, and then repair the failure, may be financially burdensome to the small and medium size business concern. Where small and medium sized businesses do not feel justified in expending valuable financial resources on the services of a technical support company, or consultant, the burden of responding to computer equipment and network failures may fall on an employee who is knowledgeable in the technology area, but who may be employed primarily in another capacity. In this situation, the distraction of the relevant employee from his or her primary task is a relevant concern. The above-identified problems are particularly serious for a small business concern that may have only a handful of employees, or that may in fact be a solo operation.
Computer systems supplied to home users may also experience failures, which most often occur within the first three months of operation. As such computer systems are usually covered by a warranty during this period, the company that supplied the computer typically subcontracts to a local support company, that will perform a location visit, diagnose and identify the cause of the system failure, and perform repairs. Many computer system manufacturers and suppliers provide warranty support programs for computer systems supplied to both small and large business concerns. It will be appreciated that there are substantial costs to the computer system suppliers and manufacturers in the support of warranties that they provide.
With a view to reducing the costs of providing technical support for computer systems and installed software, a number of IT support companies are offering remote diagnostic services, whereby a diagnosis of a faulty or failed computer system is performed remotely. However, such a service may require (1) the installation of a diagnostic agent on the faulty computer system that performs a complex and time consuming diagnosis of the computer system, and (2) the taking of corrective action, which may again be time consuming. Such a system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,678,002, filed Jul. 18, 1995, and entitled "System and Method of Providing Automated Customer Support". The performance of such a remote diagnostic operations however requires the skills of a trained technician who is able to interpret the results of the diagnostic operation and identify appropriate corrective actions. While the ability to perform diagnosis and repair operations remotely has provided some time and cost savings, the support company is nevertheless required to pay a trained technician for the period required to establish the remote connection, perform a diagnosis, interpret a diagnosis, identify a corrective action and then to take the relevant corrective action.
Following the purchase of a computer system, should a user wish to install further applications, these are usually not purchased from the supplier of the computer system, but from a software vendor. Software applications purchased subsequent to the initial purchase of the computer system must then be installed in the computer system, which may be a time consuming process or even beyond the technical abilities of a user of the computer system for computer users. Within large organizations, technical support is usually available to perform the installation, or at least to assist therein. However, for the home user, or in small and medium size organizations, such technical support may not be available, and the user may be required to install the application without support. Should problems be encountered with the installation, the user may have to consult an outside technical support operation for assistance that may be costly and time consuming.